Emile Griffith, former welterweight champ, dead at 75

Inside the smaller theater at Madison Square Garden about five years ago, shortly before a world title fight, Emile Griffith was introduced one more time to the crowd. He rose shakily from his seat, waved ever so briefly and then sat down.

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By The Associated Press

recordonline.com

By The Associated Press

Posted Jul. 24, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By The Associated Press
Posted Jul. 24, 2013 at 2:00 AM

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Inside the smaller theater at Madison Square Garden about five years ago, shortly before a world title fight, Emile Griffith was introduced one more time to the crowd. He rose shakily from his seat, waved ever so briefly and then sat down.

The applause kept going.

Revered in retirement perhaps more than during his fighting days, Griffith died Tuesday at 75 after a long battle with pugilistic dementia. The first fighter to be crowned world champion from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Griffith required full-time care late in life and died at an extended care facility in Hempstead.

"Emile was a gifted athlete and truly a great boxer," Hall of Fame director Ed Brophy said. "Outside the ring he was as great a gentleman as he was a fighter."

An elegant fighter with a quick jab, Griffith's brilliant career was overshadowed by the fatal beating he gave Benny "The Kid" Paret in a 1962 title bout. The outcome darkened the world of boxing, even prompting some network television stations to stop showing live fights.

It also cast him as a pariah to many inside and outside the sport.

He went on to have a successful career after that fatal fight, but Griffith acknowledged later in life that he was never the same boxer. He would fight merely to win, piling up the kind of decisions that are praised by purists but usually jeered by fans hoping for a knockout.

Griffith often attended fights in his later years, especially at the Garden, where he headlined 23 times.

He was also a frequent visitor to the boxing clubs around New York City, and made the pilgrimage most years to the sport's Hall of Fame in Canastota.